When Peyton Snell came to Alamogordo, he thought that a business offering monthly room rentals would mostly attract Holloman airmen.
A housing shortage on base attracted S & B Rentals to the hotel that used to be the Economy Inn, he said.
“For us, it’s air force housing down here,” Snell said. “We really want to target air force housing.”
His plan was based on a real need in the community, Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce President Adam Hoppes said. Holloman has a housing shortage of about 900 units, he said.
“We have airmen and their families who need a place for anywhere from 30 days to a year,” Hoppes said. “Monthly rentals give them an option that a hotel or a 12-month lease doesn’t.”
After Snell arrived in early August to oversee the refurbishment and renting of 31 rooms, however, he was surprised to find that only six were rented by people from the base.
Many of the renters, he found, were local.
“They are good people just looking for an affordable place to live,” he said.
One resident, Carl Cantrell, 77, feeds the pigeons in the property parking lot each morning. He said it reminds him of childhood and the mornings he would spend feeding animals on his family farm.
He is staying at S & B while he pursues medical care for cancer and other life-threatening problems stemming from an HPV diagnosis in 1988. His daughter and her husband are paying for his stay, he said.
“Being here and taking care of myself, I’ve been able to recover more,” Cantrell said. “It’s been a pretty nice place to stay. Snell has been a really great guy, helping me out.”
Snell thinks that the relatively low number of airmen at S & B is due to a lack of awareness about his business on the base.
“I believe if the Air Force knew about us, we’d be completely full with the Air Force,” Snell said. “We know we’re cheaper than any other house an Air Force person is going to find with what we offer.”
S & B made an effort to advertise at Holloman with flyers and through a military program that connects personnel to community housing, Snell said.
He was assisted by Hoppes, who connected him with the marketing department on the base.
Hoppes said he was happy to help connect airmen with housing.
“There’s a real demand for housing in Alamogordo right now, and especially for flexible, shorter-term stays,” Hoppes said. “Holloman AFB is training the next generation of F-16 and MQ-9 pilots and crews, and many of those airmen need somewhere to live for weeks or months, not years. S & B Rentals fills that gap.”
S & B rents their furnished rooms at $850 a month.
A benefit of a business like S & B, Hoppes said, is that it makes Alamogordo more accessible for young people.
“When young professionals arrive, whether through the base or a new job, the first thing they need is a place to land, and S & B gives them that,” Hoppes said. “As our older generation retires and sells their businesses, we need the next generation to see Alamogordo as a place to live, invest, and build. S & B did a great job identifying a need in our market, and there’s plenty of business to go around.”
Snell said S & B Rentals has brought short- and medium-term rental properties to several markets.
Snell has worked in real estate since just after high school, when he and a childhood friend went into business together.
He and his partner first bought a hotel to refurbish into a business focused on month-long rentals in their hometown of Kalispell, Montana. Today, they own three hotels in Kalispell, one in St. George, Utah, and a few mobile home parks.
Snell said he and his business partner enjoy Alamogordo’s warm weather. They want to be involved with the community and sponsor the Alamogordo High School basketball team.
In the near future, they plan to replace the Economy Inn sign and continue making improvements to the property.
“There’s a lot that this building needed in tender love and care,” Snell said. “Toilets, the whole plumbing system, and cracked showers…we’re going to be fixing up the building to par so people can have a good experience living here.”
